The present invention relates to formulations useful as hair care and beauty products.
Each hair originates in a germinative cell at the bottom of a hair follicle, a tube-like pocket in the scalp. The follicle directs the hair to the surface of the scalp. Each follicle has attached sebaceous glands. The oil produced by the sebaceous glands combines with other debris creates sebum, a substance that can form a plug, which blocks the opening of the hair follicle and traps the hair in the follicle. It is believed that accumulated sebum within the follicles and on the scalp surrounding the follicles is an important factor in hair loss and baldness.
Sebum cannot be dissolved and removed from the hair follicles and scalp by regular shampoos. Therefore, several hair care products have been developed to cleanse the sebum from the follicle opening and release the entrapped hair. Two of these products are Foli-Kleen.TM., Sable Laboratories, Pompano Beach, Fla., described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,071; and Nioxin.TM., Nioxin Research Laboratories, Inc., Lithia Springs, Ga.
The Foli-Kleen product contains both black cohosh extract and surfactants. The surfactants used in Foli-Kleen, sodium cocate, sulfonated vegetable oil and sulfonated castor oil, can cause scalp irritation and are not as effective in removing sebum as the preferred surfactants of the present invention. The Nioxin products do not contain either black cohosh extract or surfactants.